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Understanding Gender

Gender is a complex concept. So we have have created a guide here to help break down gender.

Gender Identity

Gender identity is a person's feeling of their maleness, femaleness, both, multiple, or none. This may or may not align with the sex they were assigned at birth. Cisgender people are defined as those who do feel that their gender aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth. Gender identity is most often abbreviated as gender but is often confused with sex assigned at birth. The two are separate concepts.

Gender Expression

Gender expression is how a person expresses their gender identity. This is usually done through clothing, mannerisms, walks, and ways of speaking. This gender expression can be easily understood from a binary perspective, but those who identify outside of male or female have a harder time having their gender identity understood and are often misgendered.

Sex Assigned At Birth

Sex that is assigned to a person at birth is usually based on the infant's genitalia. Sex assigned at birth is how a person is labeled as male, female, or intersex.

Sexual Attraction

Sexual attraction is who you would like to be with in an intimate and sexual way. This was believed to be just two sexualities, homosexuality or heterosexuality. It is now understood that you can have many other sexual attractions aside from homo or hetero, including having no sexual attraction at all.

Romantic Attraction

Romantic attraction is who you would like to be with in an intimate and romantic way. For some this means being in a relationship with someone but not having a sexual attraction to them. It is possible to have a romantic attraction towards a gender but have a sexual attraction to another. Individuals can also have little or no romantic attraction to any gender.

We now know that there are many different gender identity, sexualities, and romantic orientations.